MANILA, Philippines — Emerging Asian markets rebounded yesterday after a three-day rout as investors bought into regional equities beaten down since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and after a halt in nickel trading helped modestly stabilize soaring metal prices.
The main Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) inched higher by 12.15 points or 0.17 percent to 6,989.88 while the broader All Shares index slipped by 7.17 points or 0.19 percent to 3,732.35.
“Market rebounded from (Tuesday’s) selloff, but trimmed its gains at the close as most investors remain risk averse due to geopolitical issues in Europe,” AB Capital Securities said in a commentary.
It added that high-flying mining stocks corrected as commodity prices start to plateau.
Prices of oil and other commodities have surged in recent days, raising fears that the military conflict, which Russia calls a “special operation,” would stunt the global economic recovery and supercharge inflation that would force central banks to raise interest rates.
While crude prices remained elevated, market participants looked for further clues on how the conflict would pan out after the United States on Tuesday imposed an immediate ban on Russian oil and other energy imports.
Risk appetite also grew after the London Metal Exchange (LME) halted nickel trading and cancelled trades on Tuesday after prices doubled to more than $100,000 per ton.
“After LME halted trading, we are seeing metal prices pull back, broadly alleviating pressure on inflation and this is helping Asia Pacific markets as a lot of them are net importers of raw materials and energy products,” said Margaret Yang, a Singapore-based strategist with DailyFX.
Yang said the bounce in markets was also because they were sold so heavily over the last three sessions, but warned of potential further losses as the geopolitical situation remains fluid.